Federal officials appear to be coalescing around a plan to offer people 65 and older — and possibly some younger adults — the option of another booster, in case infections surge again soon.
The Biden administration is moving ahead with a plan to give at least everyone 65 and older — and possibly some younger adults as well — the option of a second booster of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna coronavirus vaccine without recommending outright that they get one, according to several people familiar with the planning. Major uncertainties have complicated the decision, including how long the protection from a second booster would last, how to explain the plan to the public and even whether the overall goal is to shield whoever is deemed eligible only from severe disease or from less serious infections as well, since they could lead to long Covid. Much depends on when the next wave of Covid infections will hit, and how hard. Should the nation be hit by a virulent surge in the next few months, offering a second booster now for older Americans could arguably save thousands of lives and prevent hundreds of thousands of hospitalizations. But if no major wave hits until the fall, extra shots now could turn out to be a questionable intervention that wastes vaccine doses and that could deepen vaccination fatigue and sow doubt about the government’s strategy. The highly contagious Omicron subvariant BA.2 is helping to drive another surge of coronavirus cases in Europe and is responsible for about a third of new cases in the United States, but health officials have said they do not anticipate a major surge caused by the subvariant. Federal health officials have hotly debated the way forward, with some strongly in favor of a second booster now and others skeptical. But they appear to be coalescing around a plan to give at least older Americans the option, in case infections surge again before the fall. It was unclear how broad the group would be. In the fall, officials say, Americans of all ages should get another shot. A decision from the Food and Drug Administration on whether to authorize a second booster could come early next week, according to multiple people familiar with the deliberations. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention might then advise those eligible to consider getting another shot, rather than recommending they do so. Giving some people the option of a second booster would be at best a stopgap measure. Many experts argue that the existing coronavirus vaccines need to be modified because the virus’s variants are diminishing their power; the question is how to reconfigure them. A surge in the fall is considered highly likely, whether it comes in the form of the Omicron variant, a subvariant like BA.2 or a new lineage entirely. More than a dozen studies are underway to find the next generation of vaccines, with the first results expected in May or June. If all goes well, that would allow enough time to produce new doses before the fall. One major hitch is that the Biden administration says it does not have the money it needs to reserve its place in line by paying vaccine manufacturers for doses in advance. On the plus side, data from the C.
